The History of the World in Bite-Sized Chunks

Very good book, though not detailed gives a crisp understanding of a lot of things . Book was in good condition, Delivered on time . Totally happy with the experience

It is not easy to write about world history – and Emma Marriott makes her task doubly difficult by aiming to “encapsulate nearly 5000 years of history in one, relatively slim volume.” This book contains six chapters, which are classified chronologically – the first two deal with ancient history, the third is about the middle ages, while the remaining three cover modern history up to 1945.This book provides a wide and balanced coverage of events in various continents in each period; and describes advanced civilizations in different parts of the globe, for example, “…the years of the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) were relatively stable… Its capital Ch’ang-an (now X-ian) contained around 1 million inhabitants, an urban population that far exceeded any other in the world… literature and the arts flourished, especially lyrical poetry, as well as ceramics (porcelain making its first appearance) and sculpture. Wood-block printing was also first introduced under the Tang, as was printing using moveable type, leading to the production of books before anywhere in the world.”It is significant that the author describes not just events, but also their historical impact. For instance, after describing the drastic reduction of population after the spread of bubonic plague (“the Black Death”) in 14th century Europe, she says: “A shortage of labour and more available land, particularly in Western Europe, increased the bargaining power of the peasant worker. Uprisings among the peasantry increased and by the sixteenth century, serfdom had largely disappeared in places like England”.Despite the limitation of space, the author provides useful trivia. On page 103, we learn about “the many Aztec words which have been incorporated into Spanish, and even English (such as tomato, chocolate and avocado).”It is often said that history is written by the victors – and hence the reader should always be alert for any perceived bias. In the early chapters of this book, there are references to “pagans” and “barbarians” - but is appears these terms are used in a historical rather than a literary sense. The author’s unbiased attitude is demonstrated on page 81, where she describes “the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453”, unlike most European historians who persist in calling this event “the fall of Constantinople”.On the whole, this book is a very good introduction to world history in less than 200 pages.

J'ai trouvé ce livre au british museum et j'en suis fan ! Du coup je l'ai acheté pour l'offrir. Un livre très bien fait, qui essaie de rester objectif dans le traitement de l'info (en se plaçant du point de vue des archéologues ou des civilisations selon les cas). On apprend beaucoup de choses en une poignée de lignes, et on comprend bien mieux les dynamiques historiques des grandes époques de l'histoire. La petite taille des chapitres les rend faciles à lire et relire pour se remémorer une info... ou l'apprendre ! Et des références sont faites tout au long du livre pour relier les événements entre eux au fil des pages.Le vocabulaire n'est pas fondamentalement compliqué donc le livre peut être abordé par des personnes avec un niveau d'anglais moyen.Triste qu'il ne soit pas traduit pour ceux qui ne parlent pas du tout anglais !

The person who recommended this book to me said, "After I read this book I start all over again. There's just too much information to absorb." I agree, but reading it over again and getting more out of it the second time around is worth the read. This book will show you what you thought you knew, but really didn't. Must read for anyone wanting to have an idea what was happening on the globe the last several hundred years.

Easy to use and to the point.